828 0776 1852 Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: L. S. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the sevent day of February, in the fifty-first year of the Indepen dence of the United States of America, A. D. 1827 H. C. CAREY & I. LEA, of the said district, have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit: "The Prairie; a Tale, by the author of the Pioneers and the Last of the Mohicans. "Mark his condition and the event; then In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by se curing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to the Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein men 'oned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of degning, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." D CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvanus Bequest of Leved. Barbour. 3-77-76 PREFACE. THE manner in which the writer of this book came into possession of most of its materials, is mentioned in the work itself. Any well bred reader will readily conceive that there may exist a thousand reasons, why he should not reveal any more of his private sources of information. He will only say, on his own responsibility, that the portions of the tale for which no authorities are given, are quite as true as those which are not destitute of this peculiar advantage, and that all may be believed alike There is, however, to be found in the following pages an occasional departure from strict historical veracity, which it may be well to mention. In the endless confusion of names, customs, opinions, and languages, which exists among the tribes of the west, the Author has paid much more attention to sound and convenience than to literal truth. He has uniformly called the Great Spirit, for instance, the Wahcondah, though he was not ignorant that there were different names for that Being among the nations he has introduced. So, in other matters he has rather adhered to simplicity, than sought to make his narrative strictly correct at the expense of all order and clearness. It was enough for his purpose that the picture should possess the general features of the original: in the shading, attitude, and disposition of the |